Queries about Spanish course

Hi @Deborah-SSi , I cant figue how the format works, or how to post, lo siento. Us there snywhere that explains how to use the whole Spsnish section pkease?
My copied Q from Slack was:
"My Wiley book says “pensar +infinitive” means “to plan, to intend to do something” but I can’t cross check this. WordReference says “pensar en …” or “planear”. I know Wiley is more S American oriented, so would that account? @Deborah (SSiW)

1 Like

You’ve just posted in exactly the right place, @christine-30 :slight_smile:

I’ve been thinking about your question. I can’t give you a definitive answer, but what I tend to hear in the part of Spain where I live is -

“pensar + infinitive” (I’ve made my mind up and intend to do something, “pensar en + infinitive” (I’m thinking about doing something, but haven’t decided yet)

“planear” - I hear less often, more in the context of arranging something and the participants talking about needing to “planear”

3 Likes

Fab answer, ¡muchas gracias!

1 Like

I think that I have come across another error; the course says that the Spanish for “that isn’t why” is “es por que”

Eso es un error, ¿no?

Gracias

Tony

Parece que sí - debe ser “no es por que”, supongo. What are the phrases that come after it?

1 Like

I can’t remember what they were, sorry. I have been doing the practices whilst painting the kitchen and I just “corrected” my answer to what I thought it should be, same as I do when the models say “auto” and I change it to “coche”

I will try to be more mindful when I’m practicing tomorrow.

1 Like

Why is “ it’s not a problem when you work together” translated as “ no es un problema cuando trabajan juntos” while “ it’s not a problem when you work” is translated as “ no es un problema cuando trabajas” ?

I thought that “trabajan” would mean “they work”

Gracias

That’s because it’s using the Latin American standard for you (plural) - which is ustedes instead of vosotros as it is in Spain. The assumption is that if you’re addressing ‘you’ and talking about doing something together, you’ll be addressing more than one person - you (plural).

In most of Latin America that will be ustedes trabajan so just trabajan if the ustedes is dropped, whereas Spanish from Spain is more likely to be (vosotros/as) trabajáis. If that hasn’t been introduced in the course yet, it’s something we’ll need to catch.

1 Like

Thank you Deborah, I would like some more explanations of usage to be included, similar to those that Iestyn gave in the old Welsh courses. At this stage of the course, 56% through purple belt with a white stripe, the “your brain is the size of a planet and you need talk in a funny accent” comments are getting a bit repetitive and, in my opinion anyway, it would be more helpful to be able to understand the mechanics of the language a little better.

Looks like the “conmigo” is missing

1 Like

Chatting to the development team, there are plans afoot to provide more specific Spanish courses for some of the main different countries. At the moment, while the speakers in the Spanish course tend to use the accent from Spain, it is an attempt at a general type of Spanish that will be understood anywhere.
But now that a lot of work has been done on using AI to speed up development, it’s going to be possible to have a European Spanish version - with things like vosotros introduced in it - and versions for countries like Mexico, Argentina etc, where there is a lot of difference in the way Spanish is spoken. It’s sounding quite exciting!

3 Likes

Definitely! Muy bien!

1 Like

I would really welcome this, I’m not sure how the Welsh courses had their beginning but being separated into North and South (I know that is not the only divide) was a great help and certainly helped me feel not only more confident using what I’d learned but also, somehow, less “touristy”. I could also appreciate the differences when speaking to people in stiniog and Caernarfon.

3 Likes

Two questions tonight :grinning_face:
First question; why is there no “ahora” at the end of the Spanish sentence?

Second question; I thought that body parts used a definite article in Spanish so should it not be “La cabeza?

Gracias!


OK, this is starting to get into the realms of ‘what feels natural to use?’ but why? I’m not entirely sure.

I’ll give you what I think, but I’ll run it past a first language friend, and see if he concurs.

To me, if the ‘now’ was important, it would go at the beginning “Ahora esto no es muy difícil” whereas it was 10 minutes ago. The English sentence doesn’t give a strong idea that the ‘now’ has any emphasis, so it’s not seen as necessary in Spanish, BUT that’s just my feeling about it, so I can’t guarantee that in fact the ‘now’ just wasn’t translated for some reason.
And interestingly, I just tried putting the English into DeepL, and it put the ‘ahora’ at the beginning.

With body parts, if you’re referring to them and mentioning whose they are, then yes, it’s just the article - me duele la cabeza. You wouldn’t say me duele mi cabeza - that’s definitely wrong.
But there is nothing else in that sentence to say whose head it is, so it’s fine to use mi cabeza.

1 Like

Thank you Deborah,

With regards to the “ahora” question, what I should have asked is “is the ahora missing in this sentence” but I’m glad that I didn’t because I gained extra knowledge!

(I believe that) I remember in the first course the word “todavia” could be placed at either the beginning or the end of the sentence which, to me , changes the meaning from (E.G.) “You haven’t done it yet” to “yet, you haven’t done it” but I’m not sure if it makes the same change in emphasis in Spanish.

Should this be “no es lo que”?

I’m happy, and rather chuffed, to say that my Spanish friend here confirmed exactly what my feeling was on those two examples!

1 Like

Yes, it can go at either end, but it doesn’t really change the meaning. There is also aún which tends to go at the front and some people use it there instead of todavía but more Iberian Spanish speakers than those of Latin America.

1 Like